The aim of the study is to reveal the ability of adults to recognize the emotional state and intonation contour of speech of children with autism spectrum disorders. 30 children with autism spectrum disorders aged 5-14 years, 60 typically developing coevals (control), and 440 adults (listeners) were participants in the study. Two analysis methods were used: perception study and spectrographic analysis of child speech. Overall, it was found that the adults are able to recognize the child’s emotional state by the characteristics of his voice. The adults recognize the states of comfort and discomfort with equal probability when listening to the speech of typically developing children. In the speech of children with autism spectrum disorders adults better recognize the state of discomfort. Correspondence of the intonation contour of the typically developing child’s repeated word to the adult’s sample were determined better than intonation contour of the words repeated by children with autism spectrum disorders. These data can be used to teaching caregivers interacting with individuals with autism spectrum disorders.

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are associated with
severe impairments in social functioning. One of the characteristics of
individuals with ASD is a specific expression of emotions and prosody. Prosody
plays a leading role in the process of verbal communication and in social
contacts between people. Prosodic patterns can be expressed in a single word or
across an entire utterance or conversation. Violation of prosody or specific
prosodic pattern in individuals with ASD is noted by many researchers [for
example:1-4], beginning with Kanner’s pioneering
works [5], and apparently, can be considered as
a central characteristic of autism [6-9]. To a
certain extent, the prosodic pattern reflects emotions that play an important
role in human life, being a factor in the organization and initiation of
behavior, determining the usefulness of information for the organism, and the
realization of communication [10]. The ability
to recognize the emotional state of adolescents with highly functional ASD for
dynamic mimic expression and vocal expressions has been demonstrated [11]. To describe the prosodic features of speech, it
is informative to determine the shape of the Intonation Contour (IC) as a
variation of pitch (the fundamental frequency) over time. In the estimation of
IС, visual approximation and instrumental analysis of pitch and its intensity
are traditionally used. Along with the instrumental estimation, the auditory -
perceptual method applies [12,13]. Dynamic characteristics
of the pitch - the difference between the maximum and minimum values of pitch -
are significant predictor of the assessment of listeners in a perceptual
experiment [9]. Listeners in perceptual analysis
evaluate independently intensity of contrast in “prosodic minimum pairs” of
records containing the same phonemic material that differ in a particular
prosodic contrast [9]. Words’ repetition in ASD
children is based on the specific property of these children - echolalia [5] that could be applied in communication with ASD
children [14].

Analysis of speech features of children with severe and
moderate severity of autistic disorders is practically absent [13,15]. The literature data and our preliminary
results conclude specific features of ASD child speech manifested in unclear
articulation and unusual prosodic. These features caused difficulties in
interaction of ASD children with other children and unfamiliar adults.
Therefore, the aim of the work is to study adult’s ability to recognize the
emotional state and words’ intonation contour in Typically Developing (TD) and
ASD child’s speech and to reveal specific acoustic features of ASD child’s
speech. The hypothesis was verified that emotional state and words’ intonation
contour of ASD children are recognized by adults worse than TD children. The
importance of the research lies in the concretization of data and the addition
of auditory perception data by objective data of instrumental speech analysis.
This approach can be used in speech therapy practice to correct the
pronunciation and for creating automatic training systems for children with
atypical development. It is important to find acoustic features of ASD child
speech leading to difficulties in emotions recognition by listeners.

4.Method

4.1Design of the Experimental
Study Included

·Participants’ selection on the base of diagnoses and
questionnaires scores and ASD children distribution to groups according
developmental features;

·Interview of informant’s parents and completion of
questionnaires about family and child development;

Participants in the study were children with ASD (F84
according to ICD-10), biologically aged 5-14 years (n = 30 children) and TD
coevals (n = 60). For this study the ASD sample was divided into two groups
according developmental features and medical conclusion: presence of
development reversals at the age 1.5-3.0 years (first group - ASD-1, n = 15)
and developmental risk diagnosed at the infant birth (second group - ASD-2, n =
15) - for these children the ASD was a symptom of neurological diseases
associated with brain disturbed. Mean Child Autism Rating Scale [16] total scores were calculated for each group. In order to assess whether
differences in autism severity varied across groups, a one-way ANOVA was
conducted for two groups. The ASD child’s groups don’t differ significantly.

Two types of experimental methods of speech analysis
were performed: perceptual (by listeners) and spectrographic.

For the first study recording conditions in the model
experiment included playing with a standard set of toys; repetition of words
from a toy-parrot in the game store situation; watching the cartoon and the
retelling the story. Situations of speech recording for TD children and children
with ASD were maximally standardized. A model experiment was performed with
heart rate control (HR) using a pulse oximeter “Choicemmed MD300C318”.

Study 2 - Perception analysis of the child’s repeated word to
the sample (words spoken by the experimenter) with the purpose of determining
the correspondence of the word repeated by the child to the sample by intonation.

Participants of this study were children aged 5-12
years. We used the model of word repeating by children [13], which allows to
evaluate the formation of the articulation; the development of verbal memory -
saving the words image; development of auditory memory - segmentation and
emphasizing of phonemes from the speech stream; formation of the child’s
attention.

The recording of speech was carried out in laboratory.
The recording time was 20-40 minutes. The recordings were made by the “Marantz
PMD660” recorder with a “SENNHEIZER e835S” external microphone.

The child’s emotional state was revealed based on
recording situation and video fragment analysis by 5 speech experts. The test
sequences were presented to 240 adults (native Russian speakers, age 21.3 ± 5.1 years) for perceptual analysis of emotional
speech. 5 test sequences contained 30 words each were created. Adults were
given the task of listening to tests to determine the three emotional states of
the child “discomfort - neutral – comfort”. The number of signals reflecting
child’s different emotional states in the tests was the same, while processing
the personal data was taken as 100%.Participants of
the second perception study were 200 adults (age 22.4 ±
6.2 year). The aim of the second perceptual study is the review of
listeners’ recognition of the correspondence of the word repeated by the child
to the sample by the meaning and intonation contour. The test sequences
included words from repetition words (n=12 tests, “adult sample - child
response” for 35 samples each). The tests sequences included “adult sample -
child response” for ТD children
aged 5-7 years (4 tests), for TD children aged 8-12 years (4 tests), and 5-12
years old children with ASD (4 tests). The tests 1 and tests 3 for each group
of children contained the words requiring complex difficult articulation.

Spectrographic analysis of speech was carried out in
the Cool Edit (Syntrillium Soft. Corp. USA) sound editor. Pitch values, max and
min values of pitch, pitch range (F0 max-F0min), and values of third formant
frequency (F 3, emotional formant) were analyzed and compared. The analysis of
the words intonation contour was carried out in the Praat v. 6.0. 36 (http://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/) (figure 1).Statistical analysis was made in “STATISTICA” program using Mann-Whitney
test, Spearman correlation, one-way ANOVA.

4.3Ethical Consideration

All procedures were approved by the Health and Human Research Ethics Committee
(HHS, IRB 00003875, St. Petersburg State University) and written informed
consent was obtained from parents of the child participant.

The excitation emotional state of the TD children led
to an increase in heart rate: 82 - 90 beats / min - in a calm state, 85 - 110
beats / min - in an emotional state. The values of heart rate in children with
ASD were 80-90 beats / min in a calm state, 85-115 beats per minute in
emotional state (125 beats per minute in one child), and did not differ
significantly from the corresponding HR values in TD children.

Both discomfort and comfort conditions in the speech
of TD children were recognized by adults with the perception rate of 0.75-1.0
better compared to the neutral condition. Positive correlation between TD age
and recognition of discomfort state r = 0.9747 (p<0.05 Spearman) was revealed.
Adults recognized discomfort state in the speech of ASD children better
according to Mann-Whitney test (p<0.01) than comfort and neutral state. The
listeners rated more speech signals of ASD-1 group children as reflection
discomfort state (50% speech signals), than neutral (33%) and comfort (33%) states.
According adult’s conclusion more (p<0.01) of speech signals of ASD-2 group
children reflected the discomfort state (100%) than the speech signals of the ASD-1
group children (50%). The perception analysis data didn’t reveal speech signals
of ASD-2 group children reflecting comfort state.

Spectrographic analysis revealed that speech
interpreted by listeners as discomfort, neutral and comfort is characterized by
a set of acoustic features. Discomfort TD children’s speech samples are
characterized by highest maximum pitch values (p<0.01), average pitch values
(p<0.05) and pitch range values (F0max-F0min) (p<0.05) vs. neutral speech
samples. Discomfort state doesn’t differ significantly from comfort state on
the base of average pitch values of stress vowels from words. Correctly
recognized by adults discomfort and comfort speech do not differ in pitch
variation values. Changes of comfort and neutral state recognition with a child’s
age are bonded together: positive correlations between recognition of comfort
and neutral test samples were revealed (r = 0.9). Discomfort state is mostly
characterized by falling pitch contour type (intonation contour - IC), comfort
state - by rising, and neutral - by flat pitch contour. Discomfort ASD children’s
speech samples are characterized by vowels’ highest average pitch values, pitch
range, and third formant frequency of words (p<0.001) than comfort and
neutral speech samples. Pitch variation values (F0max-F0min) in ASD-1 child’s
discomfort, neutral and comfort speech are significantly higher (p<0.001)
than in ASD-2 child’s speech. The F3 values in discomfort speech of ASD-1
children are significantly higher than in corresponding voice features in ASD-2
children (p<0.01) and TD peers (p<0.01). IC type does not change
depending on the emotional state of ASD children.

To clarify the data on the variance between the IC of
ASD child’s speech and the words IC normative for the Russian language,
reflecting the neutral state, the state of comfort and discomfort, the
experiment was conducted with the child repeating words for the experimenter.

5.2.Study 2 - Perception Data of the Words Intonation Contour

Determining the correspondence of the intonation
contour of the child’s repeated word to the sample caused difficulty for the
listeners. The listeners define the correspondence of the words’ IC to the IC
of the sample better for the TD child’s aged 8-12 years - 77.8 % and 5-7 years
old TD child’s - 71.6 %, worse for the 5-12 years children with ASD - 64.4 %.
For TD children, the number of words defined by adults as coinciding with the
sample according to IC varies in different tests and does not depend on the
complexity of the articulation of words included in the test sequence (figure 2). In three tests containing the “adult
sample - ASD child response”, the number of words coinciding in the IC with the
sample indicated by the adults did not differ (64.8%, 66.5%, 67.5%,
respectively, in test 1, 2, 3), in the fourth test - lower (not significantly -
58.5% of the words).

6.Discussion

The specificity of adult’s recognition of emotional
states in TD and ASD children is revealed. It was shown that adults recognize
with equal probability the states of comfort and discomfort by speech signals
of TD children and attribute more number of speech signals of ASD children to
discomfort. Listeners recognize the emotional state of children from ASD-2
group worse comparing with children from ASD-1 and TD groups. They have
difficulties with comfort state determination in ASD-2 children, while
discomfort state of ASD-2 children is recognized better vs. TD children. Skills
of TD children in dampening emotional outbursts and in displaying unfelt “emotional
fronts” increases between 5 and 12 years of age [17], emotions of
children with ASD are more wild, natural and less socially conditioned. The
specific of emotional state manifestation in informants with true autism -
ASD-1 and with ASD as a symptom of neurological diseases - ASD-2 is shown first
time in our study. The studies of ASD participants’ emotional state recognition
by humans are deficiently, but these data are important for effective
communication [15,18].In the study of adults it was shown that listeners were more accurate at
identifying the emotion context from speech produced by ASD participants
compared to TD participants but rated ASD emotional speech as sounding less
natural [18]. The presented data on the
listeners’ recognition of the emotional state of children with ASD does not
confirm the data obtained for ASD adults.The data of the
instrumental analysis showed that pitch range in ASD-1 child’s emotional speech
is higher than in ASD-2 child’s speech. Apparently, the high pitch range noted
by the researchers [4,11,19] and revealed in this paper,
which caused the variety of prosodic characteristics and the degree of affect,
can be one of the features for speech signals attribution to different emotional
states. The third formant values in discomfort speech of ASD-1 children are
higher than in ASD-2 and TD children. According listeners’ answers ASD child’s
IC correspond to the adult’s sample in fewer words than in TD children. Our
study about the possibility of repeating the intonation contour by children
with ASD is confirmed by the study of imitation of prosodic models by children
with ASD and TD children using a more complex task in the PEPS-C program [8].

7.Conclusions

Adults are able to recognize the child’s emotional state by the
characteristics of his voice. The adults recognize the states of comfort and
discomfort with equal probability when listening to the speech of TD children.
In the speech of ASD children adults better recognize the state of discomfort.
On the base of perceptual experiment the recognition of ASD and TD child
correspondence of the intonation contour of the words of the child’s repeated
word to the sample with less recognition of ASD child was revealed

8.Acknowledgments

This study is financially supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic
Research (projects 16-06-00024a, 17-06-00503a-OGN, 18-013-01133a).

Figure 1: The Praat program window: analog form and IC of the
words /watermelon - arbuz/ in the sample and in the repetition child word for
girls: ТD - Alisa (A) and Anna with ASD (B); Praat v. 6.0 36 (http://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/).

Citation:LyaksoE,FrolovaO (2018)Adult Recognition of the Emotional State and Intonation in Speech of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Pilot Study. Int J Autism & Relat Disabil: IJARD-116. DOI: 10.29011/IJARD-116. 000016

Journals

Ours is an online international open access organization which publishes all kinds of peer reviewed manuscripts in the journals. Gavin journals focus into the fields of Clinical, Medical and Life Sciences.

Conferences

Ours is an international organization which organizes professional, scientific and medical conferences worldwide.

Contact Information

Open Access Licence

Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SACreative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0
International License. With this license readers can share, distribute, download, even
commercially, as long as the original source is properly cited.